Sticks and Stones

The C-word:

Anyone reading the Cambodia Daily this weekend may have been surprised partway through the "Being Ricky Gervais" article where writer Stephan Moss of London's "The Guardian" writes:

"Gervais thereafter closed each gig by calling Hislop an 'ugly little pug-faced cunt'."

In north america the 'C-word' when spoken could set off car alarms within a 50 meter radius, outdoing the s-word, the f-word, the z-word and pretty much everything else combined in sheer profanity. Unlike Australia where I've heard it used in at least 3 different forms just in songs at children's birthday parties, the simple utterance of 'Jeez' as a youngster resulted in mom hauling me into the can for a soapy lollypop.

But what was especially interesting was how it made it into The Daily in the first place. WTF happened? Did the censors simply hump the bunk and miss it, or is its use actually permissable in Cambodian culture? Without drawing parallels between the matriarchy of certain families and the unflattering phrase above, perhaps we can just conclude that it's indeed acceptable. Or maybe not, but at least I have a new sign off for emails to ex-girlfriends.

Market Opportunity?

It's Saturday night around midnight and your mixed-gender bag of respectable friends are looking for somewhere white chick friendly to have a drink and check departing morning flights online. The usual names pop up: FCC, Quiche Eater, Metro... but they are either closed, or their WiFi is turned off (Metro as it turns out, turns theirs off at 7:30 pm).

Eventually managed a drink and some pretty good food at Riverside, but not before being offered the best quality mary jane, bolivian marching powder, opium and smack from a well scrubbed hussling motodop outside FCC.

Not wanting to strike an unflattering pose on the front cover of monday's Rasmei Kampuchea I asked my new dealer buddy if he noticed the backpack I wasn't wearing before stumbling off to get more drunk.

I guess with alot of these establishments being quite big and empty at the wee hour of 11:00 pm, the market is probably already saturated. TINS (This is not Saigon).